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After exhausting every legal and regulatory appeal, cellular
companies seem ready to let you take your phone number if you
leave.

Why the foot-dragging? Carriers lose almost a third of their
customers annually, and many envision wholesale defections when
change doesn't mean sacrificing your phone number. Studies by
The Management
Network Group Inc. (TMNG), a consulting firm in Overland Park,
Kansas, say that churn could approach 50 percent next year but then
quickly begin heading downward. Carriers will gain or lose
customers, says TMNG principal Jeff Maszal, depending on who
responds with service improvements and more attractively priced
packages.

Depending on your carrier, you may already be paying for number
portability and the number pooling allocation system.
Significantly, Verizon Wireless says it won't recoup the
millions it's spent so far on number portability and may not
charge the 10 to 15 cents per month it figures number portability
will actually cost to maintain. Without the nation's largest
carrier on board, it's hard to see how others can keep
portability surcharges without losing customers faster still.